


Paper hearts

by Glowing_dimp_as_an_ember



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Highschool AU, M/M, Mortal AU, valentine's fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 20:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9785546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowing_dimp_as_an_ember/pseuds/Glowing_dimp_as_an_ember
Summary: The blue eyed didn’t actually do much to celebrate Valentine’s Day, not anymore at least. The reason, the blond supposed, didn’t matter anymore, especially since he was about to bring said tradition back. However, perhaps he should add something most of people related with the date that year.





	

Rather cold drops of sweat rolled down along Will’s cheeks as if trying to imitate the tears that the blond was sure would eventually spill if he didn’t manage to get his emotional state in check. A more than simply unlikely scenario that would probably not occur in that said plane of reality, especially with all the endless bad possibilities his brain seemed to find join on imagining for him and the growing sense of mixed nervousness and anxiety he could swear was making an endless pit on his stomach.

The blue eyed forced a deep breath of air to fill his lungs as he sloppily passed his forearm across the thin line that marked the start of his face, where messy blond locks laid tiredly, in an attempt to stop the sticky liquid coming from making him feel even more out of place, thing that he didn’t quite believe that possible but he didn’t really feel like pushing his luck at the time being. A weird sensation of roughness gluing itself to his forehead, causing him to quickly order his arm to retreat from its position, his glance catching a flashy glow of fuchsia glitter spread along his freckled limp whose skin could have make an example of how to, poorly, make scale like figures for a rushed Halloween costume. He wondered what other things he might have missed when he looked at himself in the mirror before heading out to school.

Will hadn’t really been planning on pulling an all-nighter when the full moon rested above his head the previous day, he hadn’t really foreseen that possibility, the wild idea just presented itself to him as if it owned the room in an unexpected way at what most people would consider an ungodly hour. In all honesty, the more his mind decided to show him images of his decision making, the more nervous he could feel and possibly look on the outside as well.

It had been a considerable time before midnight, at least for people who considered two sets of sixty minutes to be somewhere near decent, when the little bulb inside his head lighted up. After such a, even though rather lazy, tiring day, he had been ready to slip into bed and let dreams cloud his mind and wash his senses; his awake mind, however, forced his eyes open as a feeling of motivation spread through his chest, warming up his interior.

The blue eyed didn’t actually do much to celebrate Valentine’s Day, not anymore at least, the days in which a small child of blond locks rushed around the halls of the house while clutching small rectangular cards written in messy handwriting and addressed to all of the members of the household were long gone in the abysm of the past. He wasn’t really certain what happened, what made him stop making those most likely poorly executed details. Perhaps it had been the anxious thoughts that occasionally rushed through his head as he stood in a room that featured a lot of people directly staring at him, maybe it simply was the stress that came with homework and responsibilities.

The reason, the blond supposed, didn’t matter anymore, especially since he was about to bring said tradition, if he could in anyway actually call it like that after having neglected it for some years, back. It would, however, have some changes that could enter in the categories of either great or minor, and hopefully in the later “a decent appearance” could be added.

A slight variation that he considered to be of some importance was who he was going to gift something to. In the past, it had been mainly just his family: Valentine’s had always been for him an occasion to celebrate the relationships that one had with others, the ones that had made a really valuable impact on one’s life, and he still stood for that; however, perhaps he should add something most of people related with the date that year.

The reason? One that hadn’t been born out of nowhere but some feelings that had been born a while ago; and although he couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact time, he could name the individual who had caused all of those incomprehensible emotions inside his younger self.

Nico di Angelo, that short-tempered, considerably stubborn and, in his own way, rather adorable Italian he became best friends with during their second year of high school after the blond had stalked him, at least according to the dark haired who never failed to remind him of those first months whenever Will decided to make a comment on his people skills.

The boy had been usually alone at that time. Never really talked to anyone, not even when it came to intervening in class or when it was time to do group projects, even then he was void of company, almost as he lived in a ghostly plane of reality. It didn’t matter when the blue eyed were to look, the other wasn’t approached by no one, being either listening to music or frenetically moving the point of a pen over the surface of a paper without a care in the world around him.

He wasn’t really certain the exact explanation he gave to himself, that could have been convincing enough, to walk towards the silent being and try to engage into conversation, a considerably awkward judged by the face the owner of the chocolate irises had pulled, a mental image that sometimes still made him chuckle to that day.

Back then it didn’t take him longer to realize that, not even the other’s body language, seemed to come up with a proper response to the sentences Will spoke to try to make the conversation flow. The situation progressively started to change with time though, going to some extend that, on some days, Nico would be the one trying to put a topic on display for them to talk about. Progress wasn’t made in a day, but the blond would be lying if he were to say that he didn’t think it worth it when even a little smile forming on the other’s face would make his heart warm up.

That’s when he knew that perhaps, just maybe, friendship wasn’t the only type of love he might hold for the dark haired that had more sarcasm in his body that possibly half of the world population. Probably some people would have seen a problem with that: how to act on those feelings; his problem was a little bit difficult, his was more about if he really should take a shot.

Sure, it didn’t sound that problematic if he were to just think it like that, overthinking, however, was pretty much a thing that haunted him in a lot of occasions, the said one included. Just walking towards the other being, looking them straight in the eye and telling them what they want said person to know might work for others, but not for him. It would be way too easy, nothing in life was as simple as that.

That was possibly what surprised him the most to be honest: the fact that he had decided to do something about the situation, if the best he could do to get it out of his chest was a cheesy Valentine’s card then so let be it.

He spent his night, and a considerable amount of the morning trying to make a decent looking product with all the materials he could find at home, all while trying to make as less noise as possible, not wanting to interrupt his parents nor his siblings’ sleep, partially because someone being awake other than him would mean interrogation hour full of questions he didn’t have or didn’t want to give the answers for.

So there he was now, walking down one of the halls of the school he attended to, his glance shifting its attention from the path in front of him to the weirdly shaped heart card courtesy of both his lack of proper rest and his inability to proper cut with scissors while a debate of what to do took place inside his mind.

A deep breath of fresh air entered through his mouth as he fixed his stare on the object he carefully grabbed between his shaky hands. He knew that if he looked at it too much, he would end up giving up on the idea as a whole whatsoever but he couldn’t help it. His blue irises analyzed the rather sparkly front not completely covered in glitter, the small holes of emptiness showing the red coloration the paper had originally.

Will briefly considered opening the letter, rereading its content as he had done before placing a foot into the building, but decided against it. The blond had the feeling, although it was more of a factual thing since his sleep deprived self was the one who had written the message after all, it would only worsen the sensations traveling through his nerves without a care in the world nor bothering at all about his own well-being.

His fingers tightened their grip slightly as he found himself getting closer to the cafeteria, area full of tables in which the person he was looking for, and considering avoiding at the same time, usually sat down until the classes were to begin. Never in his life, had the blue eyed had feel as anxious when standing in front of a door not by much bigger than him, one that he knew meant no threat and that simply hid a room in which he most likely could talk alone with the dark haired. For some reason that mere thought made his muscles tense on the spot, almost freezing him in place.

He couldn’t quite understand it, not from a logical point of view anyway. The blond was aware that he was most likely being dramatic in a way, that his thoughts were just messing with his emotions, he couldn’t help it though: knowing small details like those didn’t stop the headache that he could feel lurking around.

Will forced his lungs to take in a new current of fresh air, letting the rather hot breeze around him enter through his nostrils as he tried his best to make his muscles relax. He let his eyes fall shut as he took another deep breath, trying to ignore the pressure he felt right above his eyebrows. It would be alright, wouldn’t it be? He probably shouldn’t go asking himself questions like those, he wasn’t in the mood to taste the universe.

His eyelids uncovered his blue irises, which stared at the slightly opened door with a new sense of determination. He was doing this, he was truly doing this, he hadn’t invested so much time into thinking about the whole thing to not go for it at the end.

 _There’s no going back_ , the blond said to himself mentally as reassuringly as possible before he placed one sparkly hand against the surface of the door, pushing it open with probably more force than necessary judged by the way the piece of wood flew open, a side ending up banging aggressively against the wall. The loud sound made him unconsciously wince, although it couldn’t really compare to the shiver passing along his spine when he noticed two pair of eyes had decided to glue themselves to the direction that originated the noise.

The blond bitted his bottom lip little, gesture that, even if mostly unnoticeable from the place the other beings were sitting down, showed his nervous state. He forced his feet to take a couple of steps forward, cursing on his insides the small wave of heat that he felt spreading near his cheekbones. He could do this, he had already attracted some attention to himself…too much for him to turn around and just simply leave.

In all honesty, there were a couple of things he hadn’t been expecting from the particular scenario in front of him. First of all, he hadn’t been counting on having someone else other than Nico at that exact time, not when he would have rather like the humiliation, if it were to come, to have as less witnesses as possible.

Will didn’t had anything against the owner of the electric blue eyes, he really didn’t, especially since it demonstrated, in a way, how Nico had progressively started to get out of his shell, getting more comfortable with his own skin. Besides, Jason, even if slightly older, was someone he looked up to, and, even though not out loud, thanked for being there for the dark haired.

The second thing, and something he hadn’t picture on his imagination while he practiced briefly on his head what to say, were the rather big pile of pink and red laying on the table in a rather uncaring manner. The blond felt the lump blocking his throat getting thicker.

He wasn’t certain of what he was expecting but, the more he thought about it, the more sense the situation made. Nico, even though he didn’t approached people not he looked that approachable most of the time, especially after a rather sleepless night, had a mysterious air around him that made a lot of people inclined towards him. If the blue eyed had to be truthful, he couldn’t really blame them because that was what the owner of the brown irises was: a field full of magnetic energy that attracted whatever object that entered in proximity to him. Will had walked straight into the danger zone willingly and knowingly, he couldn’t say he regretted it.

His glance stopped over the pile of the bunch of Valentine’s cards on display, he suddenly felt himself shrinking at their presence. They all looked different from the other, no design repeating itself twice, giving each of them an air of individuality and uniqueness that only got disturbed by the fact that they all had, in one way or another, a heart for everyone to see. All of them got another thing in common though: their fancy look made his not that great made present look pathetic in comparison.

His legs continued moving closer to the other two boys in autopilot as a hurricane of wild thoughts invaded his brain, full of so many emotions that trying to identify one was more than a simple challenge at this point. He was glad that the two sitting down had stopped glancing at him to discuss something between them. What it was? The blond couldn’t know from where he was yet since their voice came out as barely more than a fain whisper.

Before he could properly register, he was standing in front of the plastic looking table partially hidden under a bunch of feelings translated to disposable pieces of paper, the feeling of nervousness presenting itself as strong as it had been since the time he left his house. He passed a chunk of saliva that was settling down at the base of his throat preventing him to speak out as he mentally prepared himself to say at least a variation of the words he had kept inside him for some while now.

His lips parted opened as sentences organized themselves in his head and… Nothing. That was all that took place, or rather what didn’t. Perhaps it was the way his brain had found to warn him that the possibility of him screwing up was pretty much still a thing, that all the time he had spent assuring the dark haired that he could trust him, all the time it took for the other to get closer to him could go down the drain as easily and just as fast as the though.

He had had enough though, enough of leaving those feelings caged inside his being. He had had enough of hiding and, if he had to pay a price to pay for that to happen…he would at least try to make the words coming out of his mouth worth that said price.

“Hey, uh, I… I have this for-” The blue eyed began to say as he hesitantly extended the handmade card towards the Italian, whose eyes widened at a rather unnatural speed as soon as his glance stopped on the object he was carrying.

“Are you serious?” Nico interrupted, his brown irises carrying a murderous look in them that would probably have caused a change in the temperature of the rom if it weren’t for the heaters distributed around the area. “I don’t get why people can’t just leave you all out of this or at least stop giving me papers I really don’t have interest in keeping.”

Will took another deep breath to try to calm himself down, to get him emotional state under control, to give himself the force necessary to let his message be heard the way he wanted it to be. “This is not… You are not understanding correctly.”

“Maybe I don’t want to!” The dark haired practically shouted, making a whimper unconsciously left his mouth due to the unexpected of the other’s action. He was about to speak up again but all of his possible lines were interrupted by the brown eyed once again, whose voice almost sounded void of any heartwarming feeling and emotion. “Just…toss it into the pile, alright? Or give it back to the person who told you to give it to me.”

The blond bitted the inside of his cheek lightly as he silently pulled the card closer to himself, almost as if wishing it would blend with his clothes, preventing anyone else to look at it, to look at the reminder of the fact that every action had an equal opposite reaction that, in most cases, isn’t the one an individual would rather prefer. He would honestly like to leave that reminder behind, the images plastered on his memories were enough already.

He was about to make an excuse, one that sadly couldn’t come faster to him, the blue eyed would take whatever poorly constructed sentence as long as it meant a ticket away from that awkward situation. He was that desperate, state that only got worse as soon as he caught up the fact that the boy sitting close to the dark haired was staring at him.

Will was about to crack, what would probably come out as a rather tense, smile, he stopped himself, however when he realized what Jason had been stared specifically: the faint reddish sparkles on his arms that matched the style of the card he was holding. It was almost as he could see the engines of thoughts working on the other’s head, his eyes wide open as he a sudden realization hit him like tons of bricks.

He shook his head in a quick, but close to unnoticeable, gesture, almost begging the slightly older being to keep his mouth shut, to not say what nobody else needed to know, what could be better forgotten under the fog of oblivion. Judged by the stare he received, it was almost safe to assume that, just because silence would remain, it didn’t automatically mean it had approval.

The blond didn’t wait for the other to continue his quiet pep talk, turning around rather quickly as soon as the knock on his stomach lessened in terms of pressure. He somehow felt as if he was bounded to the room though, trapped forever in there to relive those seconds, the most torturous ones he had ever experienced

“Where are you going?” He head Nico’s voice ask, a hint of rather obvious curiosity surrounding his words. Will never thought he would utterly dislike hearing the brown eyed talking to him as much as he did at the time.

It wasn’t him being resentful, not quite, he just couldn’t stand being around others at the time. All he wanted was to be alone, to have some time for himself, to think, to reconsider, to just…get away.

The blond didn’t turn his head to glance at the other, he was afraid that he would snap, that he would break. He took a rather shaky breath, his bottom lip trembling slightly as he tried to contain the ragged sounds that threatened to crawl out of his throat. “I just have to pick something up, I’ll be back in a while.” He said, actually surprised by the fact that he had managed to sound alright, as okay as one could manage to sound in that particular scenario at least.

The blond slowly started to head towards the exit door, his pace becoming faster as the only way of escape seemed to get further into the walls. He couldn’t resist it anymore. The room suddenly started to hold less air, looking smaller and smaller every time he dared to step closer towards his objective. He really needed to get out, he had to, he just couldn’t bear, didn’t know how to, with the situation.

“Will?” Someone, a voice he knew rather well, pulled him out of his thoughts, transporting him back to reality.

“Yes?” He couldn’t help but to sound hopeful, although that small fire glowing as dim as an ember in the cold winter died pretty quickly as the brown eyed spoke once more.

“If someone else asks for you to give me another ridiculous heart shaped card, tell them I’m not interested.”

His glance moved to the paper heart on his hand, its edges showing wrinkles and imperfections whenever he were to look, from the way the corners had been cut to the small pieces of papers that simulated badly made spikes that had refused to be wiped out of existence. _Ridiculous_. The blond shallowed rather loudly, although he could bet that the sound of his blood pumping organ shattering in million pieces would have been easier to detect.

“Don’t worry, will do.” Will breathed out before pushing the door, only for it to not open as he would have liked. He cursed under his breath as he pulled from the handles with desperation, trying his best to ignore the rather confused glances he could feel fixed on his back. It wasn’t needed right now, it all lacked of importance.

Valentine’s Day was overrated anyway, at least in the purely romantic way to celebrate it. It was all surrounded by consumerism and the idea that said day had to be the one when one had to say how much they cared for a partner, instead of simply just saying it and showing it all the time, even if only with little things. Besides, there was no way to deny the fact that chocolate and sweets were rather expensive during said date.

Besides, even if he really wanted to touch the topic on the, for some reason unknown to him, proclaimed day of love, the holiday wasn’t going to stop existing from day to day, the month already found itself surrounded and tangled with the holiday with no chance of escaping. There was still time, there would always be another occasion.

He could always try again next year, or the one after that, or even later on or…never again.

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm also on tumblr](http://glowing-dimp-as-an-ember.tumblr.com/)


End file.
